Representatives made up of from local tanneries and the Leather Industry Development Institute of Ethiopia are expected to travel to South and North Sudan, this week to review conditions for importing raw and semi-processed leather.
The delegation will evaluate the market and other facilities to be found in the two countries as a preliminary study before beginning imports according to sources at the Institute.
The representatives will visit South Sudan first and go on to North Sudan said experts at LIDI.
The Ethiopian delegation will focus on the transportation, trading system, the quality of the product available in the two countries amongst other issues over the course of their visits explained the sources.The institute made the decision to import leather to solve the shortage of supplies for national tanneries.
Crust imports will be priority according to the new scheme with wet blue and pickle as other alternatives.
The import of semi processed leather will reduce the production process for local tanneries and minimize the environmental impact of the processing according to sources at the institute.
It is expected that the import of semi processed leather will begin by the end of the third quarter of the Ethiopian fiscal year.
The import of leather will be handled by a share company formed through the Ethiopian Leather Industries Association although individual tanneries can also arrange to conduct imports on their own.
There are currently 25 tanneries in operation in the country with most of the production being dominated by a few international companies.
Source: Capital
